FOUR reasons your child should wear a mouthguard during sports! 

FOUR reasons your child should wear a mouthguard during sports! March 27, 2014  Welcome to the McCullough Dental Centre media centre, where you can remain up-to-date on the latest news and articles about general dentistry and our practice! Browse Categories Latest News and Information View Latest Posts FOUR reasons your child should wear a mouthguard during sports! Mouthguards help protect your teeth when they need it most… Does your child play a lot of sport? Keeping active is a great choice for any growing child but in doing so it is important to ensure that their developing mouths are protected during play. At McCullough Dental Centre we offer custom-made mouthguards to cushion teeth. Sports such as collision and contact sports are at higher risk of having children suffer damaging contact to the face. A mouthguard can make a huge difference between a potential hit to the chin and damaging your child’s teeth. There are four major reasons why your child will benefit from protection on the playing field.  Helps prevent neck, jaw joint and jaw injuries… Small accidents and collisions are commonplace in sports that require fast paced movement; and most of the time these type of incidents are nothing to worry about. However, in saying this, it does not take a lot to cause a little bit of damage. The neck and jaw are two of the most vulnerable parts of the body during sport and wearing a mouthguard can actually make a significant difference in the event of neck or jaw collision.  May help reduce concussion… A concussion is a very serious incident that can cause injury to the brain, headaches, lack of concentration, memory loss and poor balance. Mouthguards can reduce the impact caused to the face and mouth which under normal circumstances might lead to a concussion depending on the strength of the impact.  Protects against soft tissue injuries… If your child receives impact to the face during sport there is a fairly good chance that their teeth might accidentally tear soft tissue inside the mouth. Gums, cheeks and lips especially are at risk of tearing during sport games, with a mouthguard, the plastic will prevent the teeth from clashing against soft tissue and reducing the risk of soft tissue injuries.   Cushions teeth against impact… Impact to the face can result in teeth clashing against each other and this sudden force of pressure can damage, fracture and even knock teeth out, depending on how much pressure is applied. If a mouthguard is in place, it will cushion the gap in your child’s bite so in the event of sudden impact the teeth will not clash against each other.  At McCullough Dental Centre we offer custom-made mouthguards to fit your child’s teeth perfectly… A recent study suggested that only 36% of children aged 5 – 17 wear a mouthguard during sport games. Those children that wear mouthguards have a better chance at preventing a potential impact than those children who don’t. At McCullough Dental Centre our mouthguards are custom-made to fit only in your child’s mouth and in doing so, this means that the mouthguard will cushion pressure evenly in the potential event of a collision or blow. Give your child that added protection they deserve when playing their favourite sport.  SHARE THIS POST Posted in: Latest News and Information